Russian bank finances Su-35s production

MOSCOW, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Russia's Sukhoi Co. will produce 48 of its Su-35S fighters for the Russian air force under financing from Sberbank.

Sukhoi announced that the financing agreement was recently signed in Komsomolsk-na-Amure by its Yuri Gagarin Aviation Industrial Concern, KnAAPO, and Sberbank, the Savings Bank of Russia.

The Su-35S, primarily aimed at the foreign market, features an avionics suite based on a digital information control system, integrating on-board instrumentation, a new radar with a phased antenna array capable of detecting a larger number of air targets with their simultaneous tracking and engagement system and new increased and vectored thrust engines.

The aircraft's service life is 6,000 flight hours, the life cycle is 30 years and the designed operating life of the adjustable nozzle engines is 4,000 hours, Sukhoi said.

Under a contract last year with Russia's Ministry of Defense, 48 of the planes are to be supplied to the air force by 2015. The first Su-35S will be delivered this year.

Sukhoi said talks are under way for sales of the aircraft to customers in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and South America.

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